Review: Brick Lane Market

Explore a world of second hand products at Brick Lane Market

Review by Vincent Alblas

Brick Lane Market is situated in Brick Lane (now that’s a surprise), and is only a few minutes away from Liverpool Street station and tube station Aldgate on the Metropolitan line and Circle line. The market sells clothes, food, household appliances, art, garbage, shoes, musical instruments, more garbage: you name it, they’ve got it. Not everything is being sold through the official stands, because a lot of people simply throw an old blanket on the ground and sell whatever they found in the attic.

My experience

Even in Berlin, where practically everything is being recycled through second-hand markets, there is no place like Brick Lane Market in Spiatalfields – or at least, I’ve never discovered it. But the good thing is: in London there is, and otherwise this would have been a very short review. If you’re looking for a location that manages to combine a food market with a second-hand clothes shop and a hippie convention with an asylum seeker’s accommodation, then Brick Lane Market is the place for you. And one of the upsides is: you don’t need a big wallet to actually buy something here.

You don’t have to spend all day strolling along Brick Lane. There’s much more to see and to do in the surrounding area. Get or stay healthy and taste some organic products at the Sunday UpMarket. They do not only sell food though; all kinds of colorful clothes, fabrics, interiors and accessories switch owners here. Another option is visiting the recently built New Spitalfields Market, where many restaurants and other shops await you. Even though this new place lacks the charm that old, rusty market buildings seem to breath, it’s still worth spending some time here.

Furthermore you can visit Liverpool Street Market, Petticoat Lane Market, the Old Spitalfields Market, but honestly, sometimes you can’t tell where one market stops and the other begins, and maybe they’re all different names to describe one and the same market. I wouldn’t know.

To sum it all up: I think you must be a real market-hater if you don’t enjoy walking around in Spitalfields, while tasting a spicy curry, buying a kitschy souvenir for your folks back home, and watching the great variety of people that walk the streets in the mighty city of London.

Directions

Walk from the hostel to the King’s Cross / St Pancras tube station and take one of the eastbound lines to Liverpool Street station. From there you can follow the signs.

Hot tip

Go watch Lewis Floyd Henry, a one man Jimi Hendrix cover band that plays regularly on Brick Lane. He sings, plays guitar and plays drums at the same time. This guy absolutely deserves to have some of your pennies in his guitar bag.

More info

Opening times: Sunday only, from 8.00am to 3.00pm.

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